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The Sahel crisis since 2012

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journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-09, 22:03 authored by Clionadh RaleighClionadh Raleigh, Héni Nsaibia, Caitriona Dowd
The ‘perfect storm’ that enveloped Mali in 2012 has since escalated into a protracted and widespread crisis across the Sahel. The region currently hosts multiple, moving threats, which are most active in the three states of Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger. In those states alone, between 2012 and 2019, there have been 1,463 armed clashes, 4,723 civilians killed, at the hands of 195 violent armed groups, in 1,263 discrete locations.1 Violence reached its highest level to date in 2019 and continues at heightened frequency, suggesting a dangerous threshold has been reached and new frontlines loom. The critical lesson of this briefing is that this tsunami of conflict did not initially manifest as overtly Islamist or even ideologically coherent, but grew from opportunism. Populist rhetoric, displays of weakened state authority, a brutal—or absent—security sector, the militarization of neighbors, livelihoods and communities each constitute viable ways that the Sahel violence can metastasize through the wider region.

Funding

ERSUS - Violence Elites and resilience in states under stress; G2187; EUROPEAN UNION; 726504

History

Publication status

  • Published

File Version

  • Accepted version

Journal

African Affairs

ISSN

0001-9909

Publisher

Oxford University Press

Page range

1-21

Pages

21.0

Department affiliated with

  • Geography Publications

Full text available

  • Yes

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2020-11-03

First Open Access (FOA) Date

2022-08-27

First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date

2020-11-03

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